Seat belts 1930 pickup
 

Has anyone put seatbelts in a 1930 pickup? My thought was to run angle iron from the body bolts under the seat pan frame to reinforce the back of the seat pan and tie them in there.


Thanks in advance. Next project after fixing the generator... unless something else breaks.


JayJay

Re: Seat belts 1930 pickup
 

Just lap belts? I am sure with some thought you could semi hide diagonals when not in use , yeah I know there is not much structure to bolt them to but some is better than none.

Re: Seat belts 1930 pickup
 

If it is similar to a coupe, plenty of threads here on that.

Re: Seat belts 1930 pickup
 

In my 31 pickup i put piece of 2" angle across between the frame members and bolted it in with the frame mounting bolts just at the rear of the seat
and used those bolts to mount the outside belts, and put a piece of oak
between the angle and the pan sheet metal in the center of the cab and put a bolt down thru the angle and the oak for the two other parts of the belts in the middle. It works real well.

Re: Seat belts 1930 pickup
 

Roadster P/U or Closed Cab?
I have a CCPU and I put a non retractable lap/sash seat belt in it. I bolted a 50x100x3mm rectangular section from one side to the other for the lap part of the belt. I welded a 50x50x3mm upright section to the ends of that which came up just behind the B pillar. I had to put a kink in it to follow the shape of the pillar. The welding was done in situ. It was as high as the door opening and I used a piece of angle iron above the door to attach to the A pillar. The angle iron is 50x50x3 mm and tapered so as to not protrude too far from the original door frame. Once I painted it all the same colour as the cab itself, it is almost invisible and I feel a whole lot safer.

Re: Seat belts 1930 pickup
 

Thanks. Ed. My body bolts are inside of the seat pan underneath the seat. If I can picture how you did it, your belts actually terminate inside of the seat pan forward of the back of the lower seat cushion, and travel aft a few inches to wrap around the rear of the seat cushion and then up and out? Maybe if you could post a pic that would help me visualize.


JayJay

Re: Seat belts 1930 pickup
 

IMO, lap belts alone are next to useless, especially for the driver. In a forward impact, both driver and passenger's body shoot forward from the hip. The passenger's face fits the dash and the driver ends up impaled on the steering column. Nasty and nastier!

Re: Seat belts 1930 pickup
 

Synchro - Definitely a three-point would be better than just lap belts, but lap belts are the start. The closed cab pickup just doesn't have anything convenient to tie a shoulder harness to. I'll look again to see if I can't gin up a frame like you described and tie it to the A pillar somehow.


I really can't agree that lap belts are next to useless. Here in the US we had lap belts way before 3-point harnesses became common, and the success of the lab belts helped drive the evolution of passenger restraints in general. Amazing how much that's changed in just one generation - when I started to drive in the '60's lap belts were available only as an "add them yourself" option. I remember 70's when they first became mandatory equipment people were griping about them. Now they are ubiquitous and nobody thinks twice about buckling up (well, the ones that can think don't think twice about buckling up). Hopefully within the next generation (or sooner!) we'll get people to put down their G** D*** cell phones.


JayJay

Re: Seat belts 1930 pickup
 

If you look at my first post on this thread, you'll see how I fitted 3 point restraints.
IMO, about all a lap belt does is stop you being thrown out of the car. A help, but waaaay short of where I want to be.
We went straight to 3 point attachments in the 60's. In a new car with it's airbags, automatic braking and collision avoidance, seat belts are almost superseded.